It was all a bit worrying for a while. When the new Arctic Monkeys promo shots were released a few months ago, the Sheffield band were unrecognisible. Classic Reeboks had been replaced with pointy shoes, adolescent baby faces with beards and long hair. Had the foursome become distracted by the trappings of fame, celebrity girlfriends and friendships with Diddy?
As it turns out, such concerns were unfounded. On the third album, the Monkeys are assisted by producer Josh Homme, from Queens Of The Stone Age. And his influence is palpable – as is that of co-producer James Ford. Imbued with a dark menace, songs like ‘My Propeller’ and ‘Pretty Visitors’ rage against the preconceptions of Turner as a harmless cheeky-chappy (on the other hand, his flair for droll lyrics hasn’t been blunted in the slightest). Alex’s voice, too, continues to improve. His capabilities are demonstrated to impressive effect on ‘Secret Door’, a Swinging ‘60s pop song on which the frontman sounds like he’s spent half his life crooning in working men’s clubs and on ‘Potion Approaching’, an exercise in blurry Mojave Desert rock psychedelia.
There are no more tales of mardy girlfriends, taxi fare dodging or teenage discos. Arctic Monkeys have graduated to bigger and better realities these days. In the process, they’ve become a very fine band indeed